Kolkata: Despite objections raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy was elected to the 20 members MLAs committee on Public Accounts on Thursday.
The West Bengal Legislative Assembly Secretariat on Thursday evening had released the list of 20 members MLA Committee for Public Accounts that featured the name of TMCs Mukul Roy along with other 19 members from both the ruling party and BJP.
Earlier this day the BJP had written an objection petition to the Speaker of West Bengal Assembly Biman Bandhopadhyay for not accepting the nomination form of Mukul Roy during the scrutiny process for the chairman post of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of TMC leader Mukul Roy.
Speaking about the letter, BJP MLA Manoj Tigga said that on paper Mukul Roy is still the Krishnanagar (North) MLA of BJP and also that the BJP didn’t refer Mukul’s name.
Following is a list of the candidates elected to the Committee on Public Accounts (2021-2022):
Ambika Roy
Ashok Kumar Deb
Ashok Kumar Lahiri
Asima Patra
Bankim Chandra Ghosh
Debabrata Majumder
Debasish Kumar
Kallol Khan
Manturam Pakhira
Mukul Roy
Nikhil Ranjan Dey
Nirmal Ghosh
Pradip Majumder
Partha Bhowmick
Rabindranath Chatterjee
Shyamal Mondal
Suvendu Adhikari
Swarna Kamal Saha
Tapas Roy
Vivekananda Bauri
BJP in its letter wrote, "We vehemently objected during the scrutiny of the nomination paper of Mukul Roy in the Public Accounts Committee verbally and are now registering our strong objection to the acceptance of the nomination paper on behalf of Mukul Roy in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), but Your office took the reference of Rule no 302 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in West Bengal Legislative Assembly and directed us to submit a written objection to it."
According to the BJP, Rule 302 clearly says that 20 members of the Public Accounts Committee shall be elected from amongst its members on the Principle of Proportional Representation.
On Wednesday, senior Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy filed nominations for memberships of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the West Bengal assembly. He was among the 14 MLAs who filed nominations for the membership. There are speculations that Roy may be appointed as PAC chairman.
Earlier this month, Mukul Roy, former BJP national vice president, and his son Subhranshu Roy joined the TMC in Kolkata in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
This came over a month after the TMC secured a landslide victory in the state Assembly elections
“Mukul is still the BJP MLA. BJP gave a list of six MLAs where Mukul Roy’s name wasn’t there so on which basis can he be the chairman of PAC. We have just cited this in the objection petition,” claimed Tigga.
Notably, on June 23 BJP had proposed six names namely Suvendu Adhikari, Ashok Lahiri, Vivekananda Bauri, Bankim Chandra Ghosh, Ambika Roy and Nikhil Dey for the post of chairman of PAC.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said that the TMC will give support to Mukul Roy and also claimed Roy to be a ‘member of BJP’.
“The GJM has supported Mukul and TMC will also support. If necessary we will conduct a vote on it and will see who is mightier. Mukul is a member of BJP so there is no harm in making him PAC chairman. The Speaker will decide on it,” claimed Mamata.
On the other side West Bengal BJP Chief Dilip Ghosh said that normally the opposition gets the post of PAC chairman and wished that the ruling Trinamool Congress does ‘justice’ to the post.
It is pertinent to mention that after filing nomination Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari claimed that after the Speaker speaks on this issue on July 16, Suvendu will move the court demanding disqualification of MLA post of Mukul Roy.
